Thursday, June 10, 2010

Hockey fashonista: Don Cherry

How fitting is it that Canada's most distinctive and flamboyant dresser is a hockey commentator, Don "Grapes" Cherry?

For those of you who don't know who Don Cherry is, he is a former journeyman hockey player and successful National Hockey League coach. He is now most widely known for the commentary he provides during the first intermission on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, co-hosted by Ron MacLean.

Cherry is notorious for advocating a very physical and aggressive style of play and for appealing to populist, dyed-in-the wool Canadian patriotic sensibilities (e.g., by promoting players born in small rural Canadian towns and paying homage to Canadian armed forces). Needless to say, he is very entertaining and often controversial.

If you browse through the site, you can really get a sense of the wonderful boldness of Cherry's outfits.
Of all the sartorial quirks that Cherry is known for, his shirt collar is unquestionably the most unique.

The only thing I can compare it to are the Gangster style collars you see in movies like Goodfellas.

I remember Ron MacLean once commenting that the only time he saw Cherry speechless was when a fan asked him why it was that after so many years on the air and appearing before millions of viewers wearing the same collar style, that the style had never caught on with the public.

Aside from the shirt Collars, Grapes is also known for his extremely loud patterned double-breasted jackets. The jackets usually have some crazy floral or plaid patterns, and often in fabrics such as velvet or silk.

I could never really relate to a jacket with a plaid or non-geometric pattern on it, but I have seen designers such as D&G make prominent use of them.

All in all , say what you want about Don Cherry's clothes, but I think his brash outfits totally match his larger- than-life persona.